The election of public officials in the United States and other countries has typically proceeded in the past by use of mechanical voting machines at predetermined polling places. Where an individual is unable to attend his polling place on the election day he may be provided with an absentee ballot by election officials. He anonymously selects his choices and mails or otherwise returns the absentee ballot to the election officials. However, the various absentee balloting systems used in the past have been fraught with numerous opportunities for election inaccuracy or fraud and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved absentee balloting system which is more completely immune from fraud than prior art systems.
Another trend in electoral practice in the United States is toward electronic voting machines. Copending Ser. No. 608,157 filed May 8, 1984 for an Electronic Voting Machine and System discusses an electronic voting system in which mechanical voting machines are eliminated in favor of programmable electronic voting machines. It would clearly be desirable if a secure, i.e. tamperproof, absentee balloting system could be included in such an electronic voting system. More particularly, it would be desirable to provide an absentee ballot directly readable by computer data input means, so as to include absentee ballots in computer tabulated election results, and such is another object of the invention.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an absentee ballot which can also be readily printed by a printer under control of the computer, so as to simplify preparation for elections, using the same database as is used for programming the electronic voting machines.
Those skilled in the art will also recognize that any voting machine, whether mechanical or electronic or a combination of both, is subject to breakdown and that emergency ballots must be provided so that voters are not deprived of their franchise.
It is an object of the invention to provide an emergency ballot system which is essentially identical to the absentee ballot system in a particular locality so as to simplify generation of these ballots and their tabulation and to ensure that appropriate security is provided for the electoral process.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an absentee ballot which restricts the voter from voting for more candidates for any office than that number for which he is legally entitled to vote.